Underwater vessel exploring Titanic wreck declared missing

A submersible vessel carrying five people to see the Titanic's wreckage in the North Atlantic has gone missing, triggering a multinational search-and-rescue operation, US and Canadian authorities said.

The vessel began its descent on Sunday morning and lost contact with the surface less than two hours later, says the US Coast Guard. "At approximately 5.40 PM on Sunday, Coast Guard was notified from the research vessel Polar Prince, that was about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, over the site of the Titanic, had lost contact with their submersible with five persons on board," Officer Robert Simpson of the US Coast Guard said in the interview.